Welcome to Charlestown

Charlestown is a historic neighborhood on a peninsula just north of downtown Boston, bounded by the Charles River, the Mystic River, and Boston Harbor. It is home to the Bunker Hill Monument, the USS Constitution, and the Charlestown Navy Yard, along with hillside streets of brick and wood rowhouses built mostly in the 19th century.

About Charlestown

Charlestown is the oldest settlement within today's Boston. English colonists renamed the site, known as Mishawum, for King Charles I and incorporated it as a town in 1630. On June 17, 1775, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on its slopes, and the British burned the town during the fighting. Residents returned and rebuilt in the decades that followed, Charlestown became a city in 1847, and it was annexed to Boston in 1874. The Bunker Hill Monument, a 221-foot granite obelisk dedicated in 1843, stands on Breed's Hill where the colonial redoubt was built.

The Charlestown Navy Yard opened in 1800 and built, repaired, and supplied Navy ships for 174 years until it closed in 1974. In 1978 part of the yard became a unit of Boston National Historical Park, and the rest was divided into a historic monument area, a public park, and a new development area, where old shipyard buildings have since been converted to homes and offices. Across the Charles River lie the North End and the West End, with Somerville to the west and East Boston across the harbor.

Getting Around

The Orange Line stops at Community College and Sullivan Square stations, and North Station is about a mile from the Monument. An MBTA ferry runs from the Navy Yard to Long Wharf downtown, and the Charlestown Bridge leads to the North End. Interstate 93, Route 1 and the Tobin Bridge, and Rutherford Avenue carry traffic through the neighborhood.

Charlestown Real Estate

The historic core around Bunker Hill and Main Street is made up of rowhouses and freestanding houses in brick and wood, in Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Mansard styles, many built between the 1830s and the 1870s. Monument Square was laid out with bow-fronted Greek Revival rowhouses beginning in 1846, and Main Street is part of a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the Navy Yard, granite and brick shipyard buildings have been converted to condominiums and apartments, joined by newer waterfront buildings.

Charlestown buildings on our site include:

• Parris Landing, condominiums in the Navy Yard's 1858 machine shop complex at 42 Eighth Street
• The Armory, condominiums in the 1907 Charlestown Battalion Armory between Auburn and Baldwin Streets
• Navy Yard 33, loft-style apartments in an 1850s granite building in the Navy Yard
• Harborview at the Navy Yard, a waterfront rental building beside the Harborwalk
• Gatehouse 75, a 2012 rental building near Community College station
• Mezzo Design Lofts, loft-style rentals near Sullivan Square

Living in Charlestown

The Freedom Trail crosses into Charlestown to reach the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat, and the Bunker Hill Monument, where visitors can climb 294 steps to the top. The Navy Yard offers the Harborwalk, Shipyard Park, and the USS Constitution Museum, and Paul Revere Park sits on the Charles River. Main Street and City Square hold the neighborhood's shops and restaurants, including the restored Warren Tavern. Each June the Bunker Hill Day parade runs from Bunker Hill Street down Main Street to the Training Field.

To see homes for sale in Charlestown, browse the listings below or contact Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Warren Residential.